In the 1901 Census, aged 3, she is listed as living in Loppington Village with her parents and younger brother, William. In the 1911 Census, aged 13, she is living at Burlton with her Uncle Richard, a widower and her cousin, Sarah Jane.

She went to work in a Munitions Factory, where she was taken seriously ill. Elsie Maddox was brought, by train, to Wem Station, and conveyed by horse and cart to her parent’s home at Church Cottage, Loppington. She died, aged 20, on 21st January 1918.

Elsie Maddox is buried in Loppington Churchyard.

Munitions’ work though better paid than most jobs was neither glamorous nor safe. Some of the women became known as canaries because the chemicals used turned skin yellow and hair green.